China's cinemas join efforts against pirated VCDs

China's cinemas, which have suffered from the constant stream of illegal VCDs pouring into the country, have joined in the national effort to boycott pirated discs.

Guotai Cinema in Chongqing Municipality of southwest China issued a notice recently which said that everyone who turns in a pirated VCD will get a free ticket to the popular martial arts movie "Shanghai Noon" now showing at the cinema.

The cinema is the first in Chongqing to make the trade-in offer.

"Shanghai Noon," an instant box office hit in the United States, stars international martial arts star Jackie Chan.

An official with Guotai Cinema said it's necessary to crack down on activities involving pirated VCDs, because such cases not only damage the interest of filmmakers but also prevent more moviegoers from going to cinemas.

The cinema authorities emphasized that they will destroy all the pirated VCDs they collect.

Though only 50 people exchanged pirated VCDs for tickets in 15 days, cinema sources said that they will continue to offer the deal.

Nearly 70 percent of the pirated audiovisual products on China' s mainland come from overseas, statistics show.

The Chinese government has launched anti-pirating campaigns every year since 1989. Statistics from 28 provinces show that a total of 1.72 million pirated audiovisual products had been confiscated over the past three months, including 65,000 pirated DVDs.